Double-Cut During the War of Resistance: My Wife Came from 1937

"This is a 107mm 12-tube rocket launcher developed by our own New China, perfectly suited for guerrilla warfare!"

Xia Weiwei explained to the two leaders: "This rocket launcher has 12 parallel smoothbore directional tubes, which can be easily disassembled, and a single tube can also be used for firing."

"Each disassembled part weighs no more than 60 pounds, making it easy to carry over mountains and valleys. Most importantly, it's easy to manufacture; we can produce as many seamless steel pipes as we need, enabling mass production..."

Xia Weiwei had heard Ma Hongwei mention it before.

Ma Hongwei and his colleagues own a steel plant in Lincheng, which originally belonged to Pucheng and was established in 69. It now belongs to Fengbao Group.

Fengbao Group has a subsidiary, Fengbao Special Steel, which is a seamless steel pipe production enterprise integrating ironmaking, steelmaking, steel rolling, heat treatment, and pipe processing.

Their core industry is seamless steel pipes, with an annual production of 150 million tons. They also manufacture supporting professional oil pipes (oil pipes, casings, drill pipes), bearing pipes, and boiler pipes.

In other words, they can directly purchase seamless steel pipes from nearby suppliers in large quantities.

"Um!"

Listening to Xia Weiwei's introduction, Deputy Division Commander Xu nodded repeatedly and said, "If it's really that useful, we can mass-produce some."

What the Eighth Route Army lacks most right now is artillery.

They are even rarer than machine guns.

在37年8月以前，八路军全军只有4门75毫米山炮，外加16门迫击炮。

Those mountain guns were directly under the command of the Eighth Route Army headquarters, while the other 16 mortars were assigned to three main divisions.

其中115师有6门，而120师和129师，只有5门。

Most importantly, each mortar only had 30 shells.

It wasn't until the Battle of Xinkou that the Eighth Route Army obtained eight 75mm mountain guns abandoned by the Jin-Sui Army in the rivers and battlefields of Shanxi Province.

In contrast, a typical Japanese infantry regiment at the time had four 70mm Type 92 infantry guns, four 75mm mountain guns, and dozens of 50mm grenade launchers.

In other words, the number of artillery pieces in a single Japanese regiment exceeded the total number of artillery pieces in the Eighth Route Army over 37 years.

The Eighth Route Army's artillery was basically only obtained by capturing Japanese troops or by taking in artillery abandoned by the Jin-Sui Army and the National Revolutionary Army.

It wasn't until the end of 38 that the total number of mountain guns and mortars was only 90.

If they could mass-produce artillery, it would alleviate their predicament.

Moreover, only with sufficient firepower could they engage the Japanese army in direct combat.

"Commander!"

Xia Weiwei said in a deep voice, "Hongwei suggested that we immediately call the Central Committee and ask them to relocate all the arsenals and weapons repair shops in the Soviet area to Shanxi Province."

"The Taihang Huangyadong Water Cave Canyon in Licheng, Shanxi Province, relies on its sheer cliffs and natural defenses, making it an excellent site for an arms factory."

"In 1939, our Eighth Route Army will build the Huangyadong Arsenal there, producing nearly 10,000 rifles, repairing 10,000 firearms, and producing 2500 50mm grenade launchers..."

"Hongwei's idea is that while our Eighth Route Army is still very weak and the enemy will not pay too much attention to us, we should start construction of an arsenal here as soon as possible."

"Once the construction is completed and the Soviet-era arsenal is relocated here, we will send machinery and various spare parts here. It will probably be next year at the latest, and they will be able to produce firearms continuously."

She remembered that in the original timeline, Huangyadong only began site selection and construction in July 1939, and production did not begin until the end of 1939.

In November 1941, the Japanese army began to besiege Huangyadong, and the Battle of Huangyadong broke out.

In other words, the weapons and equipment produced in Huangyadong for less than two years were forced to be dismantled and broken up into smaller units.

If this timeline can go into production in early 38, it means that weapons and equipment can be produced almost two years ahead of schedule.

Not to mention that they would provide a large quantity of seamless steel pipes and industrial machine tools.

Even based on the original timeline's production capacity, that would amount to nearly 10,000 more rifles, nearly 2500 50mm grenade launchers, and hundreds of thousands of artillery shells.

With the help of the future world, the production capacity of the Huangyadong Armory will increase at least tenfold, or even more.

With those machines and blueprints, not only could rifles be manufactured, but also semi-automatic and automatic rifles.

Automatic rifles can, to some extent, alleviate the pressure of a lack of machine guns.

"Um!"

Commander Liu nodded emphatically and said, "I will inform the Eighth Route Army headquarters about this matter."

Deputy Division Commander Xu had transported drugs such as penicillin, sulfonamides, and artemisinin to the Eighth Route Army headquarters, as well as generators and watches. Therefore, the generals at the Eighth Route Army headquarters knew about Ma Hongwei and Xia Weiwei.

Commander Liu believed that with Xia Weiwei's words, the two generals would immediately go to Huangyadong for an on-site inspection and send people to carry out construction.

After explaining the situation, Xia Weiwei said, "Commander, let's go and store the grain now!"

"Can!"

Commander Liu glanced at his watch and said.

Xia Weiwei tossed her backpack onto the bed, pulled the stroller aside, and then walked out of the courtyard with the two leaders.

"Xia Xia!"

Commander Liu said, "Rice is very susceptible to moisture. If it gets damp, it will quickly mold, get infested with insects, clump together, and turn sour and taste bad. We can't store rice in those caves; we can only store canned meat and the like there."

"Where should we put it?"

Xia Weiwei asked, "The open space in the landlord's granary here doesn't seem big enough, does it?"

Although these rice woven bags all have an inner PE material membrane, which greatly improves their moisture-proof ability.

But it's better to be safe than sorry.

If these grains get moldy and mildewed, they'll be ruined.

"Pretty much!"

Deputy Division Commander Xu said, "The landlord here has multiple warehouses. Each warehouse can hold 90000 jin of grain. With just three warehouses, he can hold 27 jin. In addition, his family also has underground grain cellars, each of which can hold 8 to 10 jin of grain."

Xia Weiwei nodded: "Then let's go straight to the landlord's house!"

Soon, they arrived at the landlord's granary.

They used up three single-room storage rooms, each filled with 68000 jin (34,000 catties) of rice.

Although each individual grain warehouse can hold 90000 jin of grain, it is usually only filled to 7%.

They also leave some gaps for ventilation and heat dissipation to prevent the grain from piling up together and getting damp and hot.

"Having this storage space makes putting things away so much easier!"

Deputy Division Commander Xu exclaimed with emotion, "We don't even need to do any heavy lifting anymore!"

"yes!"

Division Commander Liu nodded in approval: "Without this, it would be extremely inconvenient."

None of the three carried a single bag of rice, so they didn't need to rest.

So they started walking towards the cave again.

That batch of luncheon meat and braised pork canned goods needed to be placed inside the cave.